New products from market researchA Kellogg's case study

Page 4: Information gathering - discovery to selection

For Kellogg's, the order in which the information is gathered is as important as the type of information being gathered. In order to develop the new Crunchy Nut Bites, Kellogg's undertook four distinct stages of research.

Stage 1: Discovery

Initial research aimed to identify a set of new food ideas that would be suitable for developing a new Crunchy Nut product. Secondary research from [market research publications] Mintel and Datamonitor was used to find out about innovation trends in the cereal market. It was also used to find out about new products, flavours and foods from around the world. Food developers at Kellogg”s used this information to come up with a number of new food ideas.

Focus groups

Focus groups were used to provide qualitative research. These were used to show consumers the new food ideas in the form of a number of different (real) food prototypes, including a mini crispy lattice product and a nutty triangle. The focus groups captured the attitudes and feelings of consumers towards the new foods.

This primary research helped Kellogg's to find out how new product suggestions could be developed and still fit in with the Crunchy Nut brand. It helped Kellogg”s to establish what consumers were looking for in terms of potential new flavours and textures.

The results allowed Kellogg's to discard some ideas. Other ideas were appealing for consumers but needed refining and further development. At the end of this stage, Kellogg's had a number of new food ideas that all seemed to appeal to consumers.

Stage 2: Selecting the best idea

This stage aimed to select the best idea arising from the stage 1 research. Kellogg's put the ideas from the focus group on boards. The boards had pictures showing product ideas and a description of what the new product would be like. These boards were then shown to a large group of representative consumers in a quantitative survey. They were asked to rate those ideas against a number of scales, so Kellogg's could identify which product ideas consumers liked best or disliked.

The quantitative data created specific statistical information that indicated that a new Crunchy Nut Bites idea was perceived as the most appealing amongst all the ideas tested. It established what proportion of people liked the new product idea enough to buy it. It also identified those product ideas that had the best or least sales potential.